


The Coolest Man in the Universe

by thesudokukid



Series: A Candle to See By [1]
Category: Zombies Run!
Genre: Alternate Universe - No Zombies, Fluff, Fluff without Plot, Gen, Mister Rogers' Neighborhood - Freeform, Not Beta Read, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, shameless fluff
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-19
Updated: 2020-09-19
Packaged: 2021-03-08 01:21:51
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,079
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26547457
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thesudokukid/pseuds/thesudokukid
Summary: A story in which ZR characters come to know the wonder and magic that is Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood. Will add characters as they appear.They’re so into it they actually take out their bluetooth keyboard so they can gush faster instead of saying it out loud to him, in person.They look up at him when they realize it, blushing and smiling sheepishly.“Thank you for asking.”
Relationships: Runner Five/Sam Yao
Series: A Candle to See By [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1930516
Comments: 2
Kudos: 1





	The Coolest Man in the Universe

**Author's Note:**

  * For [bebtea](https://archiveofourown.org/users/bebtea/gifts).



“So, Five, you talk constantly about how Ellie’s like the coolest woman in the universe and I’m not looking to dispute your opinion of that in the slightest. But I have to wonder, if she’s the woman you think of as being the coolest in the universe. Who’s the man you think is the coolest in the universe?”

Five smiles at him. A wonderful, genuine smile that’s full of nothing but peace and contentment.

“I’m so glad you asked.”

From there their disposition’s nothing but excitement and childish joy and hope at levels they’d ordinarily be afraid of. So whoever this man is, whatever he’s like, Sam’s got a lot to thank him for already.

\---

It starts with Five sending him a link and a photo and then devolves into Five, through text, gushing about the man. They’re so into it they actually take out their bluetooth keyboard so they can gush faster instead of saying it out loud to him, in person.

They look up at him when they realize it, blushing and smiling sheepishly.

“Thank you for asking.”

“Sure. I’m honestly just glad to see you get excited about something. I don’t think I’ve seen you get this excited about anybody but Ellie and even that probably pales in comparison.”

“Oh it does and she won’t be surprised to hear it. Your birthday is actually the same day as his.”

\---

Sam’s mouth quirks into a smile and there’s a measure of childish hope when he asks, “Really?”

“Really,” Five says. “His birthday’s March 20th just like yours is.”

His eyes seem to light up then. Like a candle getting its flame relit.

“You know he’s actually part of the reason streaming was ever a thing to begin with. He made [this speech](https://youtu.be/kwaa5rxvt-Q) defending how much the Public Broadcasting Station was getting from the government. He walked into a senate meeting where they intended to cut the funding in half. He did it knowing full well that the defense of it had been unsuccessful for the past two days or something. Guess what happened.”

Five is practically vibrating with excitement. No scratch that. They _are_ vibrating with excitement. They’re so excited it seems like their left leg just won’t stop moving.

“The funding wasn’t cut?”

\---

Five repeats the word better so many times that it actually _stops_ sounding like a word at all. And then, still bouncing, they give him the answer. “It got doubled!”

They get so excited they start drumming on the table for several seconds before stopping and they rarely, if ever get that excited about anything that isn’t Ellie.

Sam opens [the photo](https://www.reddit.com/r/wholesomememes/comments/73skrv/always_a_go_to_when_theres_scary_things_in_the) Five just sent him where the man’s being quoted. One that shows what the man who Five admires _so much_ looks like.

And the face is familiar in a way that Sam can’t quite seem to place.

“Wasn’t there a movie about him? I think I saw an advert for it at the movie theater once back when it was new.”

Five nods, not bouncing anymore, still smiling. They drum on the table again for a few seconds but their mouth still doesn’t start moving.

It’s incredibly refreshing to see that at least today they’ve forgotten how to talk out of excitement and not fear.

They keep babbling about the man through text. Telling him things like how there’s an urban legend (Story, Five corrects. _Story_ ) about how his car was stolen and returned the next day with a fresh coat of wax and a note that read “sorry, we didn’t know it was yours.”

They continue telling about how the coolest man in the unverse saved streaming in its infancy.

_That video I sent you where he’s defending the funding? He also brings up that families are recording his his program (I’d call it a show if it were anyone else but he’s a modern day saint so I’m calling it a program too). And how they’re watching it together and all and I can’t help but feel like he’s a big part of the reason why we even have streaming today you know?_

“Yeah,” Sam says. “That probably did a lot to help give us the internet we have today I think. It’s funny to think how there’s a whole industry that might not even exist if it weren’t for him.”

_It woudl’ve still happened for him … Sorry. Sorry, exited. It probably would have still hapened if it weren’t for him. It just wold’ve taken linger Ithink. Alot longer._

Five, who’s usually so insistent on spelling things right, takes one look at the corrections they’ll have to make and decides to just leave them as is. They laugh.

\---

“I think-”

Sam is immediately interrupted by [a link](https://www.misterrogers.org/watch/) to a (probably official) website started in his honor. A link that leads to full-length episodes of the show Five grew up watching as a little...person.

“That answers that question then.”

“Sorry, sorry,” Five says, evidently calm enough to speak again. “What was the question?”

“Hm? Oh I was just going to ask if you wanted to sit down and watch it sometime. But like I said, I’m pretty sure I already know the answer to that question.”

Five hums an affirmative and then says, “No binge-watching though.”

“No?”

“No,” Five confirms. “The later part of the show. The one that’s in color? Anyway the later part has a theme structure where every episode, Monday through Friday is centered on a theme. That’s how it was meant to be watched. And I am watching it that way with or without you. And that is a _threat_ I intend to see through.”

Sam nods, “I believe you. No binge-watching then. Do you want to use it as a way to wind down for the night? Like, as a way to tuck ourselves in, almost?”

Five smiles then sends two more links his way. One is a fanfiction where the coolest man in the universe has a [discussion with Thanos](https://archiveofourown.org/works/20378338) and the other is a loving comic where he talks to [Thor about his hammer.](https://imgur.com/gallery/Ru3w7vI#iSbbkWS)

“Yeah. Sure. What day is it?”

Sam checks his phone, “It’s...Saturday.”

Five sighs disappointedly like Saturday has personally offended them by not being Monday and he’s pretty sure they might actually agree.

“The next forty-eight hours are going to feel so long they might as well be forty-eight years.”

“You know we could just-”

“We are starting on _Monday_ ,” Five says.

Right. Okay then. Monday it is.

**Author's Note:**

> It's highly unlikely this fic will see any editing because it was started as a way to redirect my gushing about the man. Said gushing really only settled down by the last scene in this fic. So as I said, no editing. Oh and those typos in the section where Five is texting Sam because they're so excited to share that they've forgotten how to talk? Those are all real typos that I made while writing this fic. I wanted to leave them in so I could look back on that section later and remember how much fun I had with this fic as I was writing it.
> 
> Oh and the episodes on the Mister Rogers website get rotated out on the first and third Monday of the month if you decide to watch them.


End file.
